After a 7,000-mile journey, the group spent a week at Woodland Hill’s sister school, the Sinai Primary School in Babati, Tanzania. They worked on projects in the school and gardens, organized a concert, helped teach English and hosted a spelling bee.

“Some of the students would bring their younger siblings to school, and that’s how I came to take the picture of a little girl who had drawn magic marker dots all over her hands with the art materials we brought,” said Jeffrey, who continues to hone his photography skills with Chris Martin, the professional photographer on the trip.

The 10-day trip was organized by Karen Cavanagh and John Mason, parents at Woodland Hill Montessori School, who started the Water, Power, Peace project that brought clean and safe drinking water to the East African school in 2009.

Jeffrey Endler's winning photograph features a young Tanzanian girl who painted dots on her hand with art supplies.

The project, which features a sister-school curriculum centered on science and culture, began in 2008 when teachers from Woodland Hill Montessori and engineers and scientists with Sabre Technical Services traveled to the Sinai Primary School. Sabre then designed playground equipment to generate power and a system to store it for other uses, like providing light and electricity for the school.

Before the system was implemented, students had to walk nearly a mile and a half to the nearest water source — an old hand pump well that provided questionable water. With the power generated by the playground, the school is able to pump and distribute fresh water.

“There is no question that all the kids, not to mention the adults, learned and grew a tremendous amount in a short time on this trip,” said Hafner, who was one of the photographers. “The children at the Sinai School taught us more than they will ever know.”

Jeffrey’s photo, along with the other winning images, will appear in the May 2013 issue of National Geographic Kids Magazine.

The contest was conducted in partnership with the U.S. edition of National Geographic Kids and nine local-language editions. Each country held its own contest, and the winners, ages 6 to 14, from each category (People, Places, Scenery and Humor) were sent to National Geographic headquarters.

Jeffrey won a 16.1-megapixel digital camera, an 8GB memory card and a copy of the books “National Geographic Kids Almanac 2013,” “Weird But True 4,” “Everything Dogs,” and “Ultimate Weird But True.” But he said his experiences in Africa are far more valuable.

“I gained a lot of perspective about the world and how it doesn’t just revolve around what we go through as individuals,” said Jeffrey. “I’m really thankful for the experience and what I have.”